I had just finished law school, and was working without pay for an assistant public defender. This man’s boss ordered me into his office for “work”, then locked me in, flung me to the wall, groped and kissed me without provocation. I kneed him hard in the crotch, and he collapsed, so I unlocked the foor and escaped. But it changed my life: I went back to university, and worked very little as a lawyer after that event. (24 years later, he forced another young client into sex, and his licence was revoked for three months.) The worst part for me was that two of my male attorney friends advised me not to make a fuss, because my attacker could legally destroy me. I suffered from feelings of terror and helplessness. Both my male friends apologized, 20 years later, for their failure to support me.
